PLEASURES OF ANGLING. 131 



ceeded to do what, if he had attempted two seconds 

 sooner, would have been a success. But before 

 the gaff fell where the fish was he wasn't there, 

 and thirty-five pounds of as fine salmon as ever 

 wagged a tail floated off with the current, in all 

 probability to die " unwept, unhonored and un- 

 sung." Expletives, like notes in music, are mod- 

 ulated to meet the intensity of the emotions. The 

 General's expletive was pitched on the upper regis- 

 ter, and the gaffer would have been pitched into 

 the Cascapedia if he hadn't looked as if that was 

 just what he expected. The explanation was that 

 the water was not deep enough to permit the gaff- 

 hook to go under the fish. The consequence was 

 it glanced along its side and back, struck the leader, 

 which it broke, and gave the fish free rein. And 

 yet this mishap occurred to one of the most skill- 

 ful and careful gaffers on the river. The poor 

 fellow hung his head for a week, but it was the last 

 fish he lost. 



If it requires skill to always gaff a fish, it re- 

 quires equal skill to always properly respond to a 

 fish which leaps while the angler is playing him. 

 To elevate your rod as the fish leaps, and to hold 

 it at the attained elevation as he goes down, is to 

 almost inevitably lose him. All that is necessary 

 to be done at this supremely exciting moment, is 

 to let the tip of the rod descend with the fish. 



